ONE of the region's leading churchmen is backing an appeal to bring hope to heart patients.

The Bishop of Newcastle, The Right Reverend Martin Wharton, has agreed to become a patron of the Artificial Heart Fund (AHF) charity.

The charity is appealing to readers of The Northern Echo to help raise £160,000.

Organisers hope that Bishop Wharton will be the first of many North-East people to back the appeal.

The cash is needed by heart surgeons at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, to enable them to carry out the first two artificial heart implants in the region.

If the Tyneside implants are a success, the Government has said it will fund more operations on the NHS.

Four patients in Britain with heart failure have had the battery-powered titanium pumps implanted into their hearts.

Two of the patients have survived more than two years. One died three months after surgery, following a stroke, while the fourth died after an accident.

All the implants have taken place in the South.

But the AHF, whose appeal director is Hartlepool-born John Lloyd, wants to ensure North patients get the chance to have an artificial heart.

Steven Clark, a transplant surgeon at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle, is ready to operate.

All he needs is to find the right patients and for the charity to provide the cash.

Bishop Wharton said that he was happy to become a patron of the charity.

He said: "My hope is that our efforts will encourage the Government to take this up and support clinical trials.

"I think it is important for the people of the North-East that one of the centres where this takes place is the Freeman Hospital.

"It seems that the only alternative for many people is a transplant and, unfortunately, there is a shortage of organs available."

Mr Lloyd, who became involved after his neighbour, Peter Houghton, became the first in the world to have a permanent heart pump implanted, said it was "absolutely brilliant" that such a prominent North-East figure had launched the appeal.

He said: "It would be a massive boost if the readers of The Northern Echo would support this appeal, which would help save the lives of two North-East patients."

To help the appeal, complete the coupon on the right.